Clydesdale at the start of February is a place where the very air hurts one’s face. Icy blasts, incessant rain and road closures make for a chorus of mockery for the munchkins who live here. One could be forgiven for dreaming of sun drenched happy summer days in the Italian Lakes. Blend that with the thrill […]
Summer at the Lake Read More »
Annie Murray (http://www.anniemurray.co.uk/index.html) writes Birmingham centred saga fiction in the style of Margaret Dickinson and Katie Flynn. If you’ve not enjoyed her luscious prose, why not give her latest a go? The summary is as follows. Growing up in Birmingham, Sylvia and Audrey Whitehouse have always been like chalk and cheese. When the Second World
Meet me under the clock Read More »
Josephine Cox (http://www.josephinecox.com/) has touched the hearts of millions with (at the last count) her 44 novels and is in the top 3 most borrowed authors from public libraries. If that is not an endorsement nothing is. Let me tempt you with the following offering. Do you ever have the feeling that there should have
Lesley Pearse (http://www.lesleypearse.com/) cultivates her fiction as if it were a young sapling. She waters it with care until something beautiful has grown. No matter how severe the adversity the pure in spirit will always triumph. No one should miss out on her uplifting tales. Her 22nd masterpiece, Survivor, will be published in February 2014. How
Peter James (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_James_(writer) and http://www.peterjames.com/) offers us the ninth book in the Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series. The summary is as follows. A vicious robbery at a secluded Brighton mansion leaves its elderly occupant dying, and millions taken in valuables. But Detective Grace rapidly learns that there is one item, of priceless sentimental value, that her
Peter May (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_May_(writer)) was a Scottish journalist who wrote for The Scotsman and The Glasgow Evening Times. He has gone on to become a highly successful novelist, penning among other works The Lewis Trilogy and The China Thrillers. Well into his stride now as a practised crime author, his latest is Entry Island (2014). The summary is as
It’s hard to imagine a cockroach being bored. It simply gets on with what a cockroach does and then dies. Boredom seems only to be a possibility for organisms capable of reflective consciousness. Schopenhauer treated boredom as worthy of philosophical consideration. He thought it was lethal and that it proved the vanity of human existence. Heidegger,
Boredom: A lively history by Peter Toohey Read More »
In this widely acclaimed work from 1983, Benedict Anderson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict_Anderson and http://postcolonialstudies.emory.edu/benedict-anderson/) examines the creation and global spread of the ‘imagined communities’ of nationality. He explores the processes that created these communities: the territorialization of religious faiths, the decline of antique kingship, the interaction between capitalism and print, the development of vernacular languages-of-state, and changing conceptions of time.
Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson Read More »
Ian Frazier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Frazier and http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111023952) trains his perceptive, generous eye on Siberia, the expanse of Asiatic Russia with a grim renown. In Travels in Siberia (2010), Frazier reveals Siberia’s role in history – its science, economics, and politics – with great passion and enthusiasm, ensuring that we’ll never think about it in the same way again. He tells the stories
Travels in Siberia Read More »
